The CBI on Wednesday questioned top functionaries of the Stock Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam probe as the agency seeks to ascertain if the market regulator failed in checking mushrooming ponzi firms across a number of States.
The agency officials questioned two Executive Directors-SV Murlidhar Rao, S Ravindran and former ED KN Vaidyanathan on the procedures related to enquiry and proceedings against Saradha Realty. The EDs are in-charge of the Collective Investment Scheme Department of the regulatory body in Mumbai, agency sources said. The move comes after the agency probed a number of chit fund companies and is now looking at the role of the regulator. CBI had already questioned Assistant General Managers and a legal Officer of SEBI in this connection.
The schemes floated by Saradha Realty were found by SEBI to be illegal CIS activities and the regulator passed an adverse order against the company and its promoters in April last year. However, the SEBI order came three years after it received a complaint from Director of West Bengal’s Economic Offences Investigation Cell (EOIC) informing that Saradha Realty India limited is collecting money from the public particularly in rural areas of the State.
Recently, SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) also submitted a report to the Government on Saradha case and found the Group to be running ‘ponzi’ schemes, where returns were being given to older investors through money collected from new subscribers to such schemes.
The CBI has so far registered about 50 cases in West Bengal and Odisha following a Supreme Court order. The SC had also asked the agency to probe the role of SEBI, authorities under the Companies Act and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).The agency has recently filed a chargesheet against SRIl, the Group’s chief Sudipta Sen and Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh and others in one of the chit fund scam cases.